100 Ideas to be Global from Home

Now that I’m 100 posts in, I’ve discovered being Global from Home isn’t as difficult as I thought. If you are looking for ways to explore the world from your front door, here are 100 ways to get started!

  1. Volunteer with the local refugee community
  2. Read a book that takes place in your favorite global destination
  3. Try a new ethnic restaurant and ask the waiter for the most authentic dish
  4. Send postcards from home
  5. Donate to a scholarship fund to help students study abroad
  6. Get a pen pal
  7. Make a plan to practice your foreign language and keep it up!
  8. Go see a foreign film with a good friend
  9. Become a local guide for your city
  10. Find a language partner
  11. Host an international potluck
  12. Make a reading list that transverses the globe
  13. Live vicariously through other bloggers who are abroad
  14. Shop at an Asian market
  15. Take a walk down memory lane looking at old travel photos
  16. Pin past and future travel spots on Pinterest
  17. Buy internationally-themed holiday gifts
  18. Talk to strangers
  19. Try different coffees from around the world
  20. Go to the opera
  21. Join Postcrossing
  22. See a Shakespeare play
  23. Take a sushi class
  24. Buy a molcajete and make some real Mexican dishes
  25. Include your global experiences on your resume
  26. Practice how you could answer interview questions with what you learned abroad
  27. Consider a career in international education
  28. Find a place of worship with an international focus
  29. Eat with your hands at an Ethiopian restaurant
  30. Have a cup of coffee with international visitors in your city
  31. Visit cultural districts in your town like Little Italy, China Town, or the Asian District
  32. Live out of a suitcase for a week…from home
  33. Explore your own city like it was a foreign destination
  34. Make origami
  35. Check out Meet Up for internationally themed events
  36. Watch international sporting events
  37. Buy country-specific children’s books for your kids or for gifts
  38. Decorate your home with pictures and art from your travels
  39. Make a recipe each week from a different country
  40. Learn a card game played abroad
  41. Do a little international house hunting for fun
  42. Make your own hometown cards
  43. Turn your pictures into jewelry
  44. Take a siesta
  45. Celebrate your birthday with traditions from around the world
  46. Research and make your travel bucket list
  47. Nominate an Abroad Blog of the Week
  48. Borrow an ethnic cookbook from the local library
  49. Join internationally-themed groups on Facebook
  50. Do a little pottering
  51. Share your favorite spots and itineraries with friends planning travel
  52. Get a subscription to National Geographic
  53. Start an international book club
  54. Go to cultural festivals
  55. Shop at online fair trade stores
  56. Start planning your next trip whether it will happen or not
  57. Collect international stamps or coins
  58. Host a 20×20 party
  59. Search You Tube for videos to help your language skills
  60. Watch a documentary about a culture you know nothing about
  61. Go to a flea market
  62. Swap travel books with a friend
  63. Do a presentation on your travels for a local elementary school
  64. Listen to a lecture on TED from scholars around the globe
  65. Reread old travel journals
  66. Learn to make Belgian crepes
  67. Donate to an international organization that is doing a project you really believe in
  68. Make a list of what you learned abroad
  69. Get certified to teach English as a second language
  70. Celebrate a new holiday popular in your favorite abroad location
  71. Invite international friends over to your house for the holidays
  72. Fundraise for a good cause by hosting country-specific dinners
  73. Keep a vocabulary journal
  74. Read fairy tales from different cultures
  75. Be global on vacation, no matter where you are
  76. Make a love lock
  77. Sponsor a child abroad
  78. Host a foreign film night
  79. Take afternoon tea
  80. Retell a funny story from abroad
  81. Learn the names of all 194 countries
  82. Follow the elections of your previous host country
  83. Laugh at your travel blunders
  84. Share your own culture
  85. Take a course with a global focus at your local community college
  86. Rate hotels, restaurants, and attractions from your travels on Trip Advisor
  87. Download popular songs from your previous host country and sing along
  88. Laugh at all the things you said your first time abroad
  89. Play bocce ball
  90. Host an exchange student
  91. Download music sang in a language you don’t know
  92. Follow international fashion trends
  93. Empower kids to see the world
  94. Visit your local zoo and find out where all the animals are from
  95. Hang a map with all your past and future travels
  96. Use an online language tool
  97. Skype with friends who are still abroad
  98. Find your favorite adinkra symbol
  99. Read online newspapers from your previous host country
  100. Follow Global from Home

Note to my Non-American Readers: If any of these are from your local culture, replace it with some American Southern cooking, play a game of American football, or read one of my favorite American novels: Wench, The Secret Life of Bees, or Rules of Civility.

In the end, my advice is to just start. You’ll find you enjoy home so much more when you add global to it. {Photo courtesy Of the Fountain}

 

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8 thoughts on “100 Ideas to be Global from Home

  1. willtravelwithkids

    You put a lot of thought into that list! It’s a really great reference. I’m working on #69 next month. I must admit I’m bummed you moved to Oklahoma right after I found your blog – was looking forward to insider tips to San Diego. But the spirit and point of the blog is the same, no matter where you live. I appreciate that and it’s a good reminder for me to not get ethnocentric. Thanks for a great blog!

    Reply
    1. eliseblalock Post author

      That is great that you are getting certified to teach English! I’m starting to volunteer with the refugee community in OKC next week and think being TEFL certified would be really helpful. I’d love to get your thoughts when you get started. As for San Diego, I’ll be back for a week next month and will be sure to post some fun SD things to do. Thanks so much for reading!

      Reply
      1. willtravelwithkids

        I did some research on the various courses offered in the U.S. I found it more helpful, however, so look at the English teaching positions available around the world and see what qualifications they required. Overall, the CELTA course offered through Cambridge University was the most accepted qualification. It’s a one-month full-time course offered at various locations around the U.S. I just wanted to get some solid credentials under my belt for whenever I might need them in the future!

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